The Battle of Chaldiran

Contributed by Prof. Dr. Nazeer Ahmed, PhD

The Turkish kingdoms of the Kara Kuyunlu and Aq
Kuyunlu did not last. One of the reasons for this transience was that their
rulers did not establish enduring political and administrative structures to
sustain their empires. The Safavids were successful while the Kuyunlus failed
because they built a legacy of lasting political and administrative
structures. Their imprint on the political, social, cultural, administrative
and religious life of Persia was so profound that it lasts to this day.
Indeed, the Safavids had a major impact on the history and culture of Central
and West Asia as well as India and Pakistan.

By any measure, Shah Ismail I (1487-1524) was a
brilliant man. He was also a ruthless man. Ascending the throne of Tabriz in
1501 at the young age of fourteen, he set out to consolidate the former empire
of the Aq Kuyunlu under his flag. In the uncertain times following the
collapse of the Kuyunlu kingdoms, people needed a new sponsor for protection.
Constant warfare had exhausted the population and some believed in the coming
of the Mahdi or the resurrection of the hidden Imam. Ismail built on the
groundwork laid by his grandfather, Shaykh Junaid. Junaid had traveled
throughout Turkey, Persia and Syria, attracting followers, and converting the
Turks to his religious order. Through his tireless struggle, the Safaviyya
became a major political religious movement in West Asia. As news of Ismail’s
military successes spread, many of the Turkish tribes gravitated to him.
Followers of the Safaviyya movement flocked to Tabriz to join his forces. A
rapid expansion of his territories followed.

It is impossible to discuss the achievements of
Ismail without at the same time considering his religious leanings because
they determine to a large extent the subsequent relations between the emerging
Safavid Empire and the Ottomans. Shah Ismail was an ardent champion of the
Ithna Ashari Fiqh. The core of his guards wore a red cap with twelve
perforations in it signifying their allegiance to the twelve Imams. These were
called the Qazilbash. Ismail was at once the temporal and spiritual leader of
the Safaviyya movement, combining in his person the dual roles of the qutub
(pole), sadr (religious head) and Sultan. His word was the law, and
his followers venerated him as an invincible Shaykh in the lineage of Ali ibn
Abu Talib (r). Ismail was also heir to the legacy of his maternal grandfather,
Sultan Uzun Hassan; he therefore considered the vast Aq Kuyunlu Empire that
was once ruled by Uzun Hassan rightfully his by birth.

As soon as he entered Tabriz, Ismail declared
the Ithna Ashari to be the official Fiqh. At the time, most
inhabitants of Tabriz followed the Shafi’i Fiqh. Ismail was ruthless in
forcing his religious views on the population. Many of the Shafi’i ulema were
punished, banished or worse. Such forceful introduction of Shi’a views was
repeated in later years when Shah Ismail captured, Herat and Khorasan. Whether
this was done because of the youthful zeal of the king or because the Shi’a
tenets provided him a distinctive political religious umbrella, it is
impossible to tell. Some of the views held by Ismail were extreme, and
contrary to Ithna Ashari beliefs as well. For instance, in his earlier years,
Ismail I, as evidenced by the poetry he wrote, considered himself the shadow
of God on earth, invincible in war. He even placed the name of Ali ibn Abu
Talib (r) before the name of the Prophet. Muslims who follow the Ithna Ashari
Fiqh do not accept such views.

The Turks played a crucial role in the early
history of the Safavids. Most of Ismail’s army was from the Turkish ranks.
Prominent Turkish tribes who joined Ismail’s armies included the Turkmen, the
Qajar, the Afshar, the Shamblu and the Ustajlu. When Ismail captured Tabriz
from the Aq Kuyunlu, he appointed a Turk, Shamsuddin Kukunji, as his vizier.
Kukunji had served in a similar capacity with the Aq Kuyunlus. The political
and administrative structure of the Aq Kuyunlus was taken over and
consolidated under the Safavids, thus providing a measure of continuity in the
government. To provide the Persians a stake in the empire, they were given a
dominant share of civilian posts.

It was Ismail’s genius that in his person the
Turkish and Persian elements were fused to give birth to the unique Safavid
culture. Following the capture of Tabriz, Ismail moved quickly to consolidate
his hold on the territories once ruled by Uzun Hassan. Advancing westward
towards Anatolia, he captured Diyarbakr. He then turned his attention to Iraq,
capturing Baghdad in the year 1508. Meanwhile, a strong foe had emerged in
Uzbekistan in the person of Muhammed Shaibani Khan. Shaibani had captured
Herat and had extended his conquests to Khorasan, which was considered by the
Safavids to be theirs.

Conflict between the expanding empires of the
Safavids and the Uzbeks was inevitable. The two armies met at the Battle of
Merv in 1510. Shaibani Khan fell on the battlefield. The Uzbeks were defeated,
not vanquished. They regrouped under Ubaidullah Khan and continued their
struggle. The victorious Shah Ismail added Herat to his empire and appointed
his governor to that province.

It is in this melee, involving the Uzbeks and
the Safavids that we first hear of an enterprising young man, Zaheeruddin
Babur, the founder of the Moghul dynasty in India. Shaibani’s death did not
contain the resilient Uzbeks. His successor Ubaidullah returned with a fury to
re-occupy Khorasan in 1512. Babur, who was at the time a young prince of
thirty-two, had his own claims to the territories of Farghana which had been
taken from his father by Shaibani Khan. In the Battle of Khuzduvan in 1512
between the Safavids and the Uzbeks over the control of Khorasan, Babur fought
on the side of the Safavids against Ubaidullah. Nonetheless, Ubaidullah won
this battle.

Shah Ismail was not reconciled to the loss of
Khorasan. The following year, when the Uzbeks got embroiled in a civil war,
the Safavids reclaimed the province without a fight. Khorasan remained a
Safavid province thereafter. Thus, in the course of twelve years, between 1500
and 1512, Ismail had conquered all the lands extending from Khorasan to the
Euphrates and from the Caspian Sea to the Persian Gulf. He was no doubt aided
in this effort by the unquestioned loyalty of his followers, and the fervent
religious zeal of the Safaviyya order. His personal assets included a dynamic
personality and he was fearless in combat.

Shah Ismail’s legacy was to give Persia social,
political and administrative stability, and to bestow upon a land ravaged by
centuries of Mongol and Tatar invasions, an enduring religious cohesion and a
distinct national consciousness. The present boundaries of Iran roughly
correspond to those ruled by Shah Ismail, minus the territories of Iraq and
eastern Anatolia which were lost to the Ottomans, and parts of Azerbaijan,
Armenia and Georgia which were lost to Russia in later centuries. Southern
Afghanistan was contested between the Safavids and the Moghuls but became a
part of an independent Afghanistan in the 19th century.

The large migration of Safaviyya followers from
Anatolia to Tabriz caused an alarm in Istanbul. The Ottomans, initially well
disposed towards the Sufis, became suspicious of them after an attempt on the
life of Sultan Bayazid II by a wandering dervish in 1492. When Ismail captured
Tabriz in 1501 and made it his capital, the migration of Turkish followers of
the Safaviyya order accelerated. The movement was so widespread that entire
border districts were depopulated. In 1502, the Ottomans cracked down. Anyone
suspected of being a sympathizer of the Safaviyya order or a Qazilbash was
apprehended and deported to Thrace in northern Greece. Ismail’s incursions
into the Ottoman province worsened the situation. But the real confrontation
between the Safavids and the Ottomans started in 1511 when Sultan Bayazid II
fell ill and rumors spread that he was close to his death. The Qazilbash in
western Anatolia, who had felt persecuted by the Ottomans, sensed an
opportunity to get even, and rebelled. Under their leader Shah Quli, who had
declared himself to be the Mahdi, they went on a rampage, indulging in
widespread killings and looting.

In Islamic history, as we have seen in the
Murabitun revolution in the Maghrib, social disaffections have often been
expressed in religious terms. The uprising of Shah Quli was not a religious
war, much less a Shi’a-Sunni confrontation. Rather, it was an expression of
the festering disaffection of some Turkoman tribes due to lack of opportunity
in the Ottoman Empire, which had now become a political establishment. By
contrast, the rapid expansion of the Safavids was a call to ambitious young
men, and restless tribes, to try their luck at adventure and advancement. So
potent and organized was this rebellion that the governor of the province fled
before the rebels. An initial detachment of Ottoman troops under Prince Qorqud
was defeated. Bayazid II finally sent his grand vizier Khadim Ali Pasha to
crush the rebellion. In a pitched battle at Sivas in 1511, the rebels were
routed. Both Shah Quli and Khadim Ali Pasha fell on the battlefield. However,
many of the Qazilbash escaped across the Ottoman-Safavid border. Some were
apprehended by Shah Ismail and punished for their excesses, but most of them
found a home in the Safavid armies.

The porous border between Anatolia and
Azerbaijan brought the first military confrontation between the Ottomans and
the Safavids. Faced with an uprising in the east, the Ottoman Porte in
Istanbul forced Sultan Bayazid II to abdicate in favor of his son Salim
(1512). This young monarch had witnessed first hand the zeal of the Qazilbash
while he was governor of Trebizond, a district adjoining Azerbaijan. Salim
knew that a military clash with the Safavids could not be postponed. He
advanced towards Azerbaijan at the head of the disciplined janissars.
Shah Ismail and Sultan Salim I met at the Battle of Chaldiran in 1514. The
Ottomans enjoyed a distinct advantage in artillery and guns and the contest
was a disaster for the Safavids. So complete was the rout, that in their haste
to retreat, Shah Ismail’s favorite wife was left behind in the battlefield and
fell into Ottoman hands.

The Battle of Chaldiran was a defining moment
in Islamic history and a benchmark for relations between the Ottoman and
Safavid Empires. It was the only time that the Safavids fought the Ottoman
armies head-on, and it ensured that eastern Anatolia-and for a while parts of
Azerbaijan-would be ruled from Istanbul. The city of Tabriz was exposed to
Ottoman conquests, and the Safavids thought it prudent to shift their capital
east to Isfahan. During subsequent incursions by the Ottomans, the Safavids
chose to retreat, allowing the handicaps of distance, geography and terrain to
arrest Ottoman advances. The Battle of Chaldiran shattered Shah Ismail’s
spirit. Gone was his conviction that he was invincible in battle. He did not
take part in any further military engagements, delegating the fighting to his generals.

Shah Ismail, the leader of a Sufi order, rose
to become the father of one of the most important dynasties in Islamic
history, and the founder of a brilliant Islamic culture, which at its zenith
combined the best traditions of Persia with those of the Turks, the Uzbeks and
the Afghans. Shah Ismail died in 1525.